believes that the civil war has killed 40,000 people in syria. now, russia's foreign minister has now invited rebel leaders to talk. i want to bring in our nick payton walsh. he's in lebanon today. we know that a lot of reporters can't officially be in syria at the moment to sort it all out. but this does seem like a very significant development. what do we expect out of these meetings between russian officials and some of the syrian rebels? >> reporter: what's clear about this, syria has said it will talk to russia. it's a similar kind of plan that they've been pushing since june. the issue really here is the reaction we've already heard. the syrian opposition, their leader saying he'll talk, but not in moscow as the russians suggest. the syrian free army saying they're not willing to at all. the real issue is exactly what do the russians expect? let's hear what they had to say with their egyptian counterparts earlier. >> translator: we expressed our readiness to the meeting with the syrian coalition president. we are ready for that. and as we u